Developing an Awareness on the Importance of Good Diet for Well Being

Developing an Awareness on the Importance of Good Diet for Well Being

Obesity prevalence is a national concern. About 30% of the population is considered to meet the criteria for obesity (Yanovski, & Yanoski, 2011). This number keeps increasing, and the medical and psychological implication is worrisome. Some of the diseases associated with obesity are cardiovascular disease, sleep disorder, reflux disease, stress incontinence, and much more (Dornelas, 2008). These diseases are the disturbing part of obesity.

Many scholars have speculated the cause of obesity, as some researchers believe it has genetic origin, as well as environmental. The genetic origin deals with lack of fat receptors in the body, which slows the metabolism of fat. The environmental aspect deals with the type of diet individuals consume, and lack of physical activities. The environmental way to deal with this genetic defect is to further decrease the caloric intake, increase physical activities, education, and social support. A study done by Rooney, Mathiason and Schauberger (2011), examined the predictors of obesity in a birth cohort. A cohort of about 795 mothers and 802 children were followed during pregnancy for about 15 years. Characteristics of mothers and offspring were examined to find any predictor of obesity. They found that, gestational birth gain, weight gained during infancy, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and most especially maternal obesity is the strongest predicator of child’s obesity at all times. The result of this study might be due to genetic or due to the fact that the child has been exposed to the same kind of diet as the mother, and this eating pattern continues with the child.

Some theorists also argued that the cause of obesity is the lack of will power. Boutelle, et al. (2011), examined two treatments specified to reduce eating in the absence of hunger in overweight and obese children. Participants were overweight or obese, selected from schools, day care centers, and parents reported child’s eating in the absence of hunger in order to participate. The study was divided into two groups. The first group was the appetite awareness training group, parents were asked to use monitoring to increase sensitivity to hunger and satiety and the coping skills for the children to manage the urge to eat when not hungry. The second group was the cue exposure treatment food group. This is described as cravings, which is eating when not physically hungry. In this treatment, children learned strategies to recognize cravings and suppress it until urges diminished. The results showed that both treatments significantly decreased the urges of eating when not hungry, and as a result, weight decreased. This means that not every food consumed is due to hunger.

Furthermore, to predict type II diabetes in individuals at risk, the BMI, or the size of the waist can help do so. When fat accumulates centrally in the abdomen, the circulating fats can cause insulin resistance, as fat is less likely to cause insulin resistance when it accumulates in other parts of the body. Tsenkova, Carr, Schoeller, and Reff (2011) in perceived weight discrimination amplified the link between central adiposity and non-diabetic glycemic control and the result showed that hip-to-waist-ratio (central adipose deposition) has been significantly linked to significant increase in HbA1c (monitors long time diabetic control). It also shows that weight discrimination increases the psychosocial stressor and this increases the HbA1c as a result of stress. Decreasing weight can help eliminate type II diabetes.

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